


Always Faithful

by trampledrose



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-14
Packaged: 2021-03-04 01:33:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24715375
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trampledrose/pseuds/trampledrose
Summary: My brain took the idea of the introduction of Elliot returning by having Richard and Kathy come back first and ran with it except Elliot makes an appearance first. More description inside. Eventual Bensler because they've owned my ass since 6th grade. Also posted to FF.net
Relationships: Olivia Benson/Elliot Stabler
Comments: 1
Kudos: 14





	1. Chapter One

Author’s Note: Hey there! Thanks for stopping by. I haven’t written a fic in y e a r s y’all so please please just don’t go for the face when you wind up wanting to hit me. After reading about Elliot’s return my gremlin brain wanted to give my own spin on it especially after seeing Kathy & Dickie were slated to film & return before Elliot. This is an anti Kathy & Dickie & pro Bensler account. I’m not going to bash them but they are, uh, antagonists. Noah isn’t quite uh a monster in this one. Slight AU. 

The oldest Stabler son is in trouble after he is suspected of assaulting and raping his estranged wife Rose, who happens to be Noah's summer nanny. 

I own nothing except for miss Rose Catherine Murphy. 

Trigger Warning: mentions of assault, rape, and miscarriages/infertility. 

Chapter One

Her throat burned. A searing pain she had never known before. She tried to focus on the pain, to ground her, to keep her going but everything was a haze, like she was looking through dirty glass. Pain was the only thing she could feel. She didn’t even realize she was at the apartment door until it swung open and she was met with big, bright brown eyes. She used the doorframe to hold herself up but she was slowly losing the battle against gravity. Electric green eyes met brown, concern met emptiness and it was in that moment Rose’s green eyes rolled into the back of her head and her body collapsed into Olivia’s arms. 

The next memory Rose had was waking up to the sound of a machine beeping and murmured voices. She was still having trouble focusing but managed to turn her head to see a monitor and found that next to the monitor was Olivia Benson in an uncomfortable looking plastic hospital chair with Noah on her lap reading The Boxcar Children. Rose smiled softly, she had started reading The Boxcar Children to Noah, it was one of her favorites when she was his age and took it upon herself to introduce him to them. 

“Olivia,” Rose croaked. 

Olivia took off her glasses, gave the book to Noah and motioned for him to get up and put the book away into her day bag. 

“Hey sweetheart. You had us worried there for a minute. How are you feeling?” 

Rose suddenly felt an onslaught of emotions. Guilt was at the forefront. Tears pricked her eyes and she nodded. “I’m sorry.” 

Olivia sat on the edge of hospital bed and took Rose’s hand. “Rose, you have nothing to be sorry for. Do you remember anything before you got to the apartment?” 

Rose let out a broken sob. Noah rushed over to the bed to join Olivia. 

“Mom, can I get up there with Miss Rose?” 

Olivia shook her head. “I would rather you didn’t but it’s up to Rose, honey.” 

Noah gave Rose a pleading look and through her tears Rose managed a nod. Noah gently climbed up onto the bed and snuggled into Rose’s side, paying mind to her bandages. 

Olivia managed a sigh. Talking to Rose would have to wait but seeing her son calm Rose would make the wait worth it. “You know Rose I was just about to get to the part of the story where the kids find spooky messages written on the chalkboard.” Rose’s eyes lit up. “Oh yeah? Remind me which one of the books are you guys reading? I don’t think I remember this one.” 

“Mom! Can you get the book out again? I wanna show Miss Rose how much I can read.” Olivia smiled at her child’s enthusiasm but winced when she saw Rose flinch at his loud insistence. “Ok bud but three pages and then Uncle Fin will be here to pick you up.” 

“But I don’t want to leave with Uncle Fin! I wanna stay here with Miss Rose!” 

Sensing one of Noah’s flare-ups coming to a boil Rose gently tucked Noah further into her side, not minding the pain while doing so. “Noah honey, look at me. Your mama and I have to talk but I promise you when I get out of here you will be able to read me as much Boxcar Children as your heart desires but you need to listen to your mama and when it’s time to go with Uncle Fin, ok?” Rose felt Noah deflate against her but he nodded in agreement. When Rose first met Noah in her classroom she quickly picked up on his anger and found a way to diffuse it, bribery. While it wasn’t the best or most qualified response it was effective. 

Noah sighed and looked at Olivia with a gleam in his eye. “You said four pages, right?” 

After Noah left and the doctor and nurse talked to Rose she was left alone with Olivia and suddenly the room felt like it was closing in on her. She was going to have to talk about it. She didn’t want to but she knew Olivia could help. She was told Olivia could help. 

Rose took a shaky breath. “You didn’t call him did you?” 

Olivia looked confused. 

Rose clasped her hands and stared at them. “I know you ran a standard background check on me after you hired me. I know you know who I’m married to, legally anyway.” 

Realization hit Olivia like a ton of bricks and she had to sit back down. Stabler. Rose was married to Richard Stabler but kept her maiden name Murphy. They didn’t talk about it. Olivia never brought it up and Olivia assumed Rose didn’t know anything. Everyone knows the saying about making assumptions. 

“How did you find out?” Olivia did not want to have this conversation. New York City had over eight million people crammed into it and yet she’d still somehow wound up tethered to him after all this time. 

“After, after they got divorced there was a lot of discord between all of them. Pops moved into Manhattan and she kept the house in Queens. At first you had to choose a side; you were either with Pops or with Kathy. Pops always had a soft spot for me. And Kathy? Well, she never really took too kindly to my presence in her son’s life. I was always going to be the girl who took her oldest her son away from her.” 

Olivia looked at her, pointedly, to continue. “I found out one night when Richard and I went over to Pops’, Elliot’s, for our Sunday night family dinner. There’s this older picture of the two of you on his teeny mantle. There are pictures of the kids at every stage of life all over the walls but for whatever reason that night the one picture on the mantle caught my eye. I asked him about it but he got quiet. I had never seen him so quiet, so still. I thought maybe he hadn’t heard me but after Richard scowled and Kathleen launched into story time he had a pained, almost feral look in his eyes, I’ll never forget it. He told me that you were his former partner at SVU, that you worked together for twelve years and if I ever needed anything to call you. He gave me an old business card of yours to keep in my wallet. After that I never brought it up again so you can imagine my surprise when I find out during parent-teacher conferences that the woman on the mantle and the parent of my favorite student are one in the same. The world couldn’t be smaller but at the time I didn’t need anything so I decided not to say anything to either of you.” 

Olivia blew out a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. She still had a million questions. Rose must have picked up on this because despite the dryness and pain in her throat she continued to speak, seemingly answering the questions Olivia dared not to voice. “Kathy married some Wall Street schmuck about six years ago. None of the kids were really thrilled about him but she’s happy. Maureen lives in Hoboken now with her husband, they have a little girl on the way. That kid is going to walk out of the womb dressed in Gucci. Kathleen and I actually got a shoebox of an apartment together down in Tribeca about six months ago. I’d been sleeping on her couch before that. Lizzie’s up in Pittsburgh in her first year of her residency and Richard and Eli are in Queens.” 

It was not lost on Olivia that Rose said Richard was in Queens. 

“That’s why you don’t want me calling Richard?” 

“Richard and I have been separated for eight months now.” 

Olivia blew out a breath. “Does he know?” Both women knew which he she was referring to but Rose was the only one to have uttered his name out loud. 

Rose nodded and decided to explain further, she had to be completely transparent with Olivia. “Richard and I met our junior year of high school. At first I thought it was just puppy love; I was his first and well I wasn’t the type of girl who was gonna marry the first boy I fell in love with… 

“But?” Olivia coaxed. 

“But then he’s getting deployed in the Army and I’m suddenly afraid to be alone again, to be without a family and we find ourselves in the church in our Sunday best with everyone around us saying, “I do”. And that was eight years ago. He’s been above and beyond supportive. My mom left me in the care of dementia riddled, alcoholic grandmother when I turned thirteen and my dad left when I was five so when I met Richard I wanted to stay with him because I’d never had a family before. He didn’t even blink an eye before he wrapped me under his wings. Kathy was more wary of me, didn’t trust me. To be honest with you she still doesn’t trust me.” 

“And that’s why Richard’s in Queens with her and Eli and you’re with Kathleen?” 

“After Richard’s second deployment he was different. He was placed on medical leave. I knew what it was and he did too: PTSD. At first he was doing really well with his appointments and medication. I was hopeful, we both were. Then I had my first miscarriage and that was when I noticed he was starting to slip. We both wanted the pregnancy, it wasn’t planned but as it turns out I have endometriosis making keeping a pregnancy viable difficult. I felt like he blamed me for losing the baby. I started going to therapy and he started going out with the boys from his unit. One night he comes home piss drunk only I wasn’t there, I was at Elliot’s with Kathleen having a movie night like were teenagers again. I came home the next morning and the place was absolutely wrecked. I found him on the couch, passed out. I took a shower, he joined me, said he was sorry, whispered sweet nothings in my ear. I got pregnant again and lost the baby, again and he went out and got drunk again only that time I was home when he got in.” 

Rose’s eyes glazed over. Olivia took the younger woman’s hand into her and squeezed. She had been doing her job long enough to know where this was going. 

“Lemme guess that was eight months ago.” 

Rose nodded tearfully. “At first I didn’t tell Pops. I just packed up my shit and made Kathleen swear not to tell anyone but then Richard went home to Queens after getting dishonorably discharged for a physical altercation with his two of his CO’s. That’s when shit really hit the fan and again everyone was on a side. It was like the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s. I distanced myself for a while from them but then Kathleen betrayed me to Pops and Pops came swooping down to save me from myself. When the job at school opened up in the middle of the year I thought it was perfect. I could start over. I thought I had turned over a new leaf ‘til today.” 

“What happened today? Was Richard the one who did this to you?” 

Rose let out a strangled cry that sounded like a scream. “I don’t know! I don’t even know how I got to your apartment! I don’t remember where I was or if I was with anybody! All I can remember is snippets but when I try to hold on they slip away!” Rose started to sob and hyperventilate. 

Olivia hadn’t let go of Rose’s hand and she didn’t intend to anytime soon. She squeezed again, talking her through it, trying to get her to concentrate, to breathe. She could hear the monitor start to wail; she was fighting off a panic attack and losing. A moment passed before the nurse came in. “I’m going to give her a small dosage of haloperidol, it should help with the anxiety but she needs to rest.” 

Olivia nodded “I understand” and ran a calming hand over Rose’s hair. “Rose, you have my word Richard won’t be called. I have to ask though, whom do you have listed for your next of kin? Kathleen?” Rose shook her head. “The combo on my phone is his old shield number. He’s my next of kin.” She closed her eyes & took a deep breath before she let the medication take over.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two 

Olivia felt like her stomach was going to drop out of her body. She was going to have to call him. 

Of course she knew his old shield number, it was the code to her alarm. She ran her thumb over the medallion she kept in her pocket. Semper Fi. Rose’s phone made a clicking noise as she unlocked it with the familiar numbers. Olivia went into the phone’s contacts and found Elliot’s number under the name Pops. She smiled faintly. Elliot was going to be grandfather and it would seem he found himself another daughter, too. The number listed was one she didn’t recognize. Explains a few things. She sighs as her thumb hovers over his name. She finally bites the bullet. As the phone rings her heart rate begins to speed up. 

“Hey kiddo! Didn’t think I’d hear from ya til Sunday dinner, what’s going on?” 

Olivia swore she stopped breathing. 

“Rose, you’re never this quiet, you ok?” 

And just like that she let out a breath. “El?” 

Instant recognition. She swore he stopped breathing too. “Liv?” 

He sounds panicked now, his voice cracks as he repeats her name, her full name. 

“Olivia? Where’s Rose? What’s going on?” 

She hears shuffling in the background, the sound of keys scraping against a hard surface and a door slam. “Elliot, you need to come down to Mercy General, there’s, there’s been an incident.” Best to tell him in person. Oh, God, she was going to have to face him. 

She sets aside her feelings however as she shifts into full captain mode and feels the worried father cloak he wears so well shroud him. “What happened? I need you to tell me right now! What happened to my daughter!” 

She’s wondered about this moment. Constantly asked herself if he’s changed, she has so has he? He’s the same she realizes. She doesn’t know whether that’s comforting or not. 

“I’m not telling you over the phone but you need to get down here.” 

“I’ll be there in twenty.” The line goes dead. She has twenty minutes to prepare to face the man she hasn’t seen in nine years. 

Olivia feels and hears her former partner before she seems him. He’s always been a loud and large presence. Helped them in cases more than time or two. She hears him, panicked, asking where his daughter is. She takes a deep breath and opens the door. “El,” she calls out softly but firmly. Her voice catches his attention. He has a wild look in his blue eyes. “El, she’s in here.” 

He follows her into the room but stops when he sees Rose, asleep on the bed. 

“She’s not,” he starts but seems to have trouble getting the rest of his thought out. 

“They gave her a low dose of haloperidol to help with a panic attack. The doctor and nurse should be in here in a minute they can give you a run down.” 

He clenches his jaw. “I don’t wanna hear it from them.” 

She sighs. “You might want to sit down for this one.” 

“She was raped wasn’t she.” His eyes hadn’t left Rose. Like he was afraid she was going to vanish if he looked away. “That’s why you’re here. It’s SVU’s case. I told her to call you if she needed anything, if anything – happened.” He moved from the spot against the door to the uncomfortable chair she had been sitting in earlier. 

“No,” she said quietly. “Actually I’m here because she’s my son’s nanny for the summer.” 

Elliot finally looked up at her, seemingly shell shocked, but says nothing. 

Maybe he has changed after all. 

Olivia went around the hospital bed and sat in the other chair. She didn’t know if she was intentionally putting distance between them or giving him space to be with his daughter. She braced her elbows on the bed and began. 

“I met her half way through the school year. She was Noah’s teacher’s replacement after a freak accident left them hospital bound. During parent teacher night in March she confided in me that Noah was her favorite student but that his behavior in the classroom was concerning. God knows why he’s her favorite.” 

He smiles. Despite the circumstances her eyes were shining bright mentioning her son, her Noah. He always knew parenthood would look good on her. Made her look younger, more at ease. He was proud. 

“She told me she was going to start taking classes at Barnard this coming fall to get her masters and eventual PhD in childhood psychology. She then asked me if she could observe Noah’s behavior and how he interacted with Lucy, my usual nanny and me in a home setting. I was taken aback by her brazenness to assume I’d let her into my home but both Lucy and I had been having issues with him so I decided to give it a go. She’s such an incredible and bright woman, El. Wise way beyond her years. So engaging. Well, I know you know this. I’m actually starting notice a difference in Noah, it’s amazing.” 

Elliot grins. “She’s helping me and Kathy navigate co-parenting through Eli’s middle school teenage angst years. Lucky me.” 

Olivia grimaces and lets out a mirthless chuckle. “Boy, I do not envy you. I am not looking forward to those years either.” 

Olivia straightens up then when she catches a glimpse of a bruise on Rose’s face that has seemingly gotten darker since last she looked over her sleeping form. “Rose became my summer nanny when she said she needed work and Lucy asked to take time off to go on a seven country cruise with her girlfriend. Rose comes in early on Friday mornings so we can all have breakfast and coffee together before I head off to the office and they head off to a museum or park. I heard her outside the door but when I opened it she was just standing there, leaning against the doorframe. I caught her before she hit the floor.” 

Elliot braces himself for what’s about to come next. He keeps his eyes fixed on Rose as Olivia begins to list off her injuries. 

“When I caught her I noticed blood dripping down her leg and head. There’s a deep cut right above her eyebrow, they smashed her head against something. She was assaulted and she was raped and her injuries are substantial. In addition to the cut on her head she has four fractured ribs and bruises on her arms, back and lower abdomen and she has anal and vaginal tearing.” 

Elliot was quiet but Olivia could see the turmoil as he digested the information. His eyes darkened with anger and he clenched his jaw again and she watched as he curled into himself, his hands bracing the back of his head.

After several minutes of tense silence broken up by the steady beep of Rose’s heart monitor Elliot finally spoke. “Do you know who did this? Does she know who did this?” 

Olivia sighs. She feels like that’s the only thing she’s been able to do is sigh. “I honestly don’t know El. Before her panic attack she said she only remembers snippets, which snippets I’m not sure. CSU have her clothes and took samples under her fingernails. Melinda is running point on the rape kit, Rollins and Tamin are combing through her apartment right now and Fin is getting her phone dumped. Hopefully we can find out where she was attacked but we won’t know more until she wakes up. You know how it goes.” He nods.

“They’re going to have to look into Richard,” she says. 

“Estranged spouse is always first on the list, I remember. I promise I won’t get in the way of the investigation. I know you’ll do your best for her.” He sounded resigned, like he suspected his own flesh and blood. 

“I know you would never, El. She needs you, from the sounds of it you’re about the only family she’s got.” 

He looks up at her then and really looks at her. “She’s got you, doesn’t she?” 

Olivia looks back at Elliot as she runs her fingers over the medallion in her pocket again and nods. “Always.”


End file.
